Monday, April 30, 2007

Photo by Juta Kübarsepp for the March 2013 issue of Kodu ja Aed magazine.

Kedgeree is an Anglo-Indian dish that was a popular breakfast item during the Victorian era. It's a rice dish with smoked fish and soft boiled eggs, seasoned with curry and herbs. I had seen various kedgeree recipes during my years in Edinburgh, yet I hadn't had a chance to try, yet alone make it myself. The opportunity finally knocked at my door during Easter, as I had all those colourful Easter eggs needing to be used up.

I cannot really tell you the origin of this recipe any more. I wasn't sure I will be able to find smoked haddock here, so I decided to go with salmon - the post popular and common smoked fish in Estonia. I searched the web and my bookshelf and printed out several recipes for a smoked salmon kedgeree. Eventually, I did find smoked haddock after all, and after some further inspiration from Jamie's Dinners: The Essential Family Cookbook (aitäh, Merilin, mulluse sünnipäevakingi eest!) I came up with a following recipe. Whereas kedgeree is usually made with pre-cooked rice, a bit like egg-fried rice, then I cooked it from scratch to be served straight away.

I enjoyed it, and I hope you'll do as well. It was a light and unusual brunch dish, and the pretty yellow colour made it especially suitable for a sunny spring day.. One day I will give the smoked salmon kedgeree a try, however, too..

Rinse the rice in a running cold water, drain.
Melt the butter in a pan over a medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and curry powder and fry gently for about 5 minutes.
Add the rice and the boiling water/stock (all at once). Simmer gently, covered, for 10 minutes, until rice is 'al dente'.
Add the flaked fish and lemon juice, heat through.
Season, sprinkle with chopped herbs.
Garnish with thinly sliced lemon and top with halved boiled eggs.

Mmmm, yummy! Nick and I had such a heated discussion about kedgeree last year... We had smoked snoek (a South African fish rather like angelfish in taste) leftovers and he asked me to make kedgeree like his mom used to make him. So I checked the fridge and said he'd have to pop out and get some eggs as we were out. He looked puzzled and said "but kedgeree doesn't need eggs?". It took many recipe books and Google searches to convince him that kedgeree does in fact need boiled eggs and is a rice-based dish, not a tomato-based dish that his mom used to make. Sad when a man's childhood perceptions are shattered ;-)

I remember reading Mae's post and being immediately intrigued and drawn to it. As rice is a staple here, and we have many forms of mixed rice dishes (from rice toppings to fried rice to even fermented rice), this dish really appealed to me. I'll have to try it soon! Your's looks delicious! :)

Yes, fermented rice, sometimes with shrimp...you can only imagine! I think it may be an acquired taste :) It's called buro. I loved it straight off the bat though...I like to eat it with fried catfish or wrapped in mustard leaves :)

Since I am an Indian, maybe I can try out an amateur history lesson on this. Kedgeree comes from the Hindi word 'khichdi' which denotes a mish-mash of things and is the name for a dish that typically is a bit of mish-mash of stuff. Here is a recipe : http://www.indianfoodforever.com/rajasthan/vegetable-khichdi.html

However, there is no single way to do khichdi and is done waay differently as you go across the country.